Paramount Skydance to cut 1,000 jobs on Oct 29 in first round of layoffs

LOS ANGELES – Paramount Skydance will begin a major round of layoffs with 1,000 job cuts on Oct 29, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans. 

A second round is expected later, said the person, who asked to not be identified. The number of total expected layoffs has previously been reported at about 2,000.

The company was created from the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media in August, and new management has made clear that it wants to move swiftly to cut costs and restructure the business. 

“We do not want to be a company that has layoffs every quarter,” Paramount president Jeff Shell said at a press conference after the merger. “So, it’s going to be painful.”

Mr John Dickerson, the co-anchor of CBS Evening News, announced in a social media post on Oct 27 that he is leaving the network by the end of the year, 16 years after he first anchored Face the Nation.

“I am extremely grateful for all that CBS gave me – the work, the audience’s attention and the honour of being a part of the network’s history – and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human,” Mr Dickerson wrote in a post on Instagram.

Skydance acquired CBS as part of the merger with Paramount and has quickly made changes at the storied news outlet. Paramount chief executive David Ellison brought on Ms Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News earlier in October. Ms Weiss built popular online news site the Free Press, which Mr Ellison also acquired. She has been critical of many mainstream media outlets, which she has accused of liberal bias. Paramount also appointed an ombudsman at CBS News to review bias complaints.

Mr Dickerson, who spent 12 years at Time magazine and nearly a decade at Slate as a political correspondent, has co-anchored CBS Evening News alongside Mr Maurice DuBois since January.  BLOOMBERG